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Today , when all eyes will be focussed on the fight in Caribbean , there would be another battle going on in Malasiya where India will face South Korea in their third match in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2010. Both India and South Korea have 4 points each from the two matches they have played , followed by Australia with 3 points in single match.
After putting up a lazy show against China , which caused serious ramifications as India ended up with only 1 point in a match that could have easily fetched 3 points , India pulled their socks up against their arch rival Pakistan by commanding the game dominantly for the 70 minutes and then safely reaching the shore by thrashing Pakistan 4-2.
South Korea started their tournament with a bang by outgunning Egypt by 6-0 but were then frustrated by the Malaysians who made them slump for a 1-1 draw in a pulsating match. Giving the Malaysian players credit for their fighting display, the Korean coach Shin Seok Kyo was optimistic that his team had what is required to take all three points against India. He said that the Koreans need to work on their penalty corner conversion against India as specialist Nam Hyun Woo was not at his best against Malaysia. According to Shin , Nam had difficulty against the Malaysians and so they utilized variations and that too was a tough task as the Malaysian keeper was very agile and read their moves well. Shin also promised that their performance will be totally different on Sunday as they have analyzed the performance of the Indian team minutely.
On the other side , the Indian coach was clearly not on the seventh sky after the win against Pakistan as he said that they should not be complacent about the win over Pakistan for there are many areas that need to be worked and improved upon.India will also go into the match with an upper hand over Korea after having thrashed them 7-2 in their last meeting at the 2007 Asia Cup final in Chennai.
The Koreans are a fast and skillful side and it will be an interesting match given the fact that both teams have dropped two points from drawn matches and a win in this match can prove to be very handy for marching ahead to the semi – finals.The skills of Indian players will be put on a real test against the Koreans and the performance they put up today will to very good extent determine the chances of India’s semi - finals hopes.
Altogether an usually warm , cool and stress free Sunday evening has a lot of exciting , entertaining and heart pumping action awaiting for the Indian ‘keeda of sports’.
